The imprint technique is attracting a great deal of attention as one of nano-lithography techniques for volume production of, for example, magnetic storage media and semiconductor devices. In the imprint technique, a pattern is transferred onto a substrate such as a silicon wafer or a glass plate using, as an original, a mold having a fine pattern formed on it.
An imprint apparatus which uses such an imprint technique presses a mold against a substrate via a resin (imprint material) supplied on the substrate, and cures the resin in this state. The imprint apparatus then separates the mold from the cured resin to transfer the pattern of the mold onto the substrate. At this time, it is necessary to prevent loss of the pattern transferred onto the substrate. To meet this requirement, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2009-536591 and 2009-517882 propose techniques of deforming (curving) the mold so as to form a convex surface that bulges toward the substrate in bringing the mold into contact with the resin on the substrate, or separating the mold from the cured resin.
An imprint apparatus generally uses a plurality of molds, each of which is applied with a predetermined force to deform each mold in the same amount (in a predetermined amount) in a mold deforming operation (that is, in an imprint process). However, the thickness of each mold varies due, for example, to manufacturing errors and dimension errors. Therefore, when the force to be applied to each mold remains the same, the deformation amount of each mold in an imprint process varies. As a result, the dimension and shape of the pattern transferred onto the substrate vary across individual molds, or loss is generated in the transferred pattern.